For the last three years there has been a debate as to whether the chaos at our southern border is the result of incompetence or intent by the Biden administration. That question has now been answered beyond a reasonable doubt: it’s the latter.

While there has been plenty of incompetence in this regime—see Kamala Harris’ brief, tragicomic stint as “immigration czar”—there is a preponderance of evidence that the White House deliberately turned a stable border zone into a humanitarian disaster and is actively taking steps to worsen it.

The latest and most telling example is the report that Biden’s Department of Defense has been selling off materials that were purchased by the Trump administration to complete the border wall but were not used. Eighty-one lots of 28-foot hollow beams have reportedly been sold for $2 million so far, with more available at the online auction marketplace GovPlanet. 

Why does this matter? One of Biden’s first actions upon entering the Oval Office on Inauguration Day in January 2021 was to issue a proclamation that halted construction of the wall along the southern border, a project he deemed “not a serious policy solution” and “a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.”

Since that day, illegal border crossings have exploded, as have the number of migrant deaths along the Rio Grande, illicit drugs transported into the U.S., and children trafficked by cartels. Meanwhile, news reports showed vast fields of steel wall sections rusting in the sun, each section costing about $5,000. It has been estimated that about $150 million worth of materials are sitting idle in south Texas, likely never to be used for their intended purpose.

As the border crisis only gets worse, pro-law enforcement Republicans in Congress have been pushing for legislative action to complete the wall. Rather than have a national debate on the undeniable failure of his policies to secure the border, Biden and his team of anti-borders zealots instead moved to render that debate moot by selling off the wall materials. How can we finish the wall when there are no longer any materials to build it?

This is political cynicism at its worst. It’s bad enough that this administration killed the project to complete a border wall system that the government had already bought and paid for. Now, to hide its shame and responsibility for the immigration policies that are tearing the country apart, it sells off the wall materials, making it all but impossible for the project to be completed anytime soon.

Biden might have some credibility in labeling a border wall as not being a serious policy solution if his own alternative policies had been a resounding success. Instead, they have been an epic calamity responsible for the deaths of hundreds of migrants, while creating a pipeline for deadly fentanyl and other drugs to poison Americans throughout the country.

As justification for this madness, illegal immigration activists can only cite the evidence-free bumper sticker line that “walls don’t work.” This is contradicted by reports on other countries like Israel that have had great success with physical barriers in keeping terrorists and other national security threats from entering. 

As if to prove that walls don’t work, the Border Patrol recently welded open 114 border wall gates in Arizona. The inexplicable move resulted in swarms of migrants walking freely into the United States.

Yes, in some cases walls don’t work, like when their gates are intentionally opened for anyone to enter.

“It was so easy to get into the United States,” a Cuban migrant told the New York Post. “Nothing like our trip through Mexico. That part was difficult. I thought there was going to be more security.”

We have now reached the point where illegally entering in Mexico is far more difficult than illegally entering the United States. That is not a statement on the strength of Mexico, but on the weakness the United States has projected to the world since the current administration took control.

The latest actions by the White House are not just the selling of wall materials, but selling away our national security. Americans are supposed to be protected by their leaders from foreign nationals who would enter our country illegally and weaken the country. Instead, our national sovereignty has been violated, and all of us are experiencing the collateral damage in one way or another.

It will be hard enough for good leaders to pull our country out of this mess. The last thing we need are those who are purposely trying to make it worse. 

Brian Lonergan is director of communications at the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) in Washington, D.C, and co-host of IRLI’s “No Border, No Country” podcast.

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